Preaching Liberty to the Colonists

The American revolutionaries justified their cause with ample appeals to Scripture. But what should Christians think of the conclusions they drew?

Robert Tracy McKenzie| July 3, 2013

Image:
Painting by George Caleb Bingham

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Book Title

Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution

Author

James P. Byrd

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Release Date

June 4, 2013

Pages

256

Price

$22.12

The history of the American Revolution is, above all, a story about national beginnings, and stories about beginnings are stories that explain. How we understand our origins informs our sense of identity as a people. We look to the past not only to understand who we are but also to justify who we wish to become. And so, as a nation divided over the proper place of religious belief in the contemporary public square, we naturally debate the place of religious belief in the American founding.

Outside of the academy, much of that debate has focused on a simplistic, yes-or-no question: Did religious belief play an important role in the American founding? This makes sense if the primary motive is to score points in the culture wars, mining the past for ammunition to use against secularists who deny that the United States was founded as a Christian country. There's a problem with the history-as-ammunition approach, however. It's good for bludgeoning opponents, but it discourages sustained moral reflection, the kind of conversation with the past that can penetrate the heart and even change who we are.

In contrast, books like Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press) have the potential to challenge us deeply. Granted, author James Byrd inadvertently offers ammunition to readers cherry-picking evidence for a Christian founding. He matter-of-factly contends that sermons were more influential than political pamphlets in building popular support for independence, and he insists unequivocally that "preachers were the staunchest defenders of the cause of America." And yet the question that really interests him is not whether religion played an important role in the ...

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